Government Should Be Intentional About Social Housing, Liaise With Professionals on Funding, Says M.I. Okoro

Chief M.I Okoro, a well-respected Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, is gravely concerned about Nigeria’s poor housing and determines that the ugly situation can be addressed through a combination of intentional strategies that include local government council flats, and social housing, driven by federal and state government. Professionals will tell the government how to source the fund, among others, Okoro tells Bennett Oghifo

Let’s start with the TV programmes on housing and environment advocacy you have. How many TV stations are you using?

We are using three for now. Our plan was to use four TV stations, but we use Arise, we use TVC, and we use NTA network.

Your focus is actually to enlighten the public?

Yes, our focus is what we call real estate information advocacy, to enlighten the public, including the government, and advise the government on essential things they need to know and need to comply with in environment and real estate. It is a long journey, really. But we just started with the first edition, it’s the first quarter. We are still within our first quarter. Okay, but it’s something we are going to do for a very long time. In fact, if I have my way, I don’t want to stop again because I’ve just realised that, you know now, I was the one that started AM Express: Real Estate Today on NTA network. So, the idea then was to bridge this gap of information regarding real estate and development, and after so many years I have spent and the gap I gave, I thought somebody else would have taken over from me. I realised that even within the professional body and members, nobody did anything till today. So I said, “Well, you know that where I come from, there is an adage that an elder cannot be in the house when a goat will die in the barn. You know what I mean. So I said, “Well, since God has given me the good health and the resources, let me deploy it as my corporate social responsibility to help humanity and leave a lasting legacy. So I think I will continue to profess real estate and development as long as I’m alive, you know. It gives me joy to do so, and also people, more people will benefit. Okay, you know, even though there is no way I would measure it, to know how many people that it impacts, but I know that as wide as the viewership of the different TV platforms we are using, the more different audience and the more people they will reach, both here and abroad. So, that is my desire, and so far, so good. I think we are communicating, but the message is traveling very, very, very far. Particularly, you see that we are using the premium TV platforms like Arise, TVC, and NTA Network.

Okay, that’s good. Let’s go to a very contentious one now. Housing is becoming, that’s rental, commercial and residential is becoming very tough. People find it difficult to rent houses now. What is going on? It never used to be like this.

Yes, It never used to be like this, but it will continue to go up, for your information, as long as population is increasing, as long as people are migrating from the level of poverty to affluence, or to at least certain comfortable level of means of livelihood, they will continue to demand for accommodation. Don’t forget that the geographical supply of land is fixed. God had created earth, the universe, so it cannot increase. The only way man can increase. It is either by reclamation, by trying to grab some land from the river or the ocean, right? Or you go to the sky, sky level, like you see in Japan, you see in China and Indonesia, other highly densely populated countries of the world. That’s where you see some buildings up to 100-storeys. That is the only way. Time is coming when horizontal living will become very scarce. Maybe it will be an exclusive for the big boys/wealthy. Where you just have a storey building. Time is coming when in this country, if you are living in a mansion like this, just a storey. You understand? People will be envying you. People will be wondering how you managed it. So maybe it’s an exclusive preserve to people like Alhaji Dangote, Mr. Tony Elumelu, people like that, including Corporate giants. But if you check now, even along Gerard Road, Bourdillon Road, Alexander Road. You will observe that the sky level building is already taking place. It’s creeping in. You go to Alfred Rewane Road (former Kingsway) Road) in Ikoyi, its’s the same thing, go to Victoria Island and many places, even in Lekki Phase One. All those high streets, we are beginning to see high-rise buildings. All they are trying to do is conserve the scarce supply of land, but the piece of land there is very scarce and very expensive. So even when they manage to get it, what can they do to maximise the land use. You understand, so that’s why you see them going high. But then the question is, the higher you go, the more expensive it is to develop it, and more expensive to acquire it. Because if you go to that highrise, you know, we are even selling one of those 21 storey buildings. The higher you go, if you hear the amount of money you’ll pay, you will be amazed.

So we don’t have a solution to it right now? What I’m saying is, rents are becoming exorbitant even in high density areas like Shomolu, Mushin, Ajegunle, among others.

Now, I’ll tell you what is going on. It’s a displacement factor. Many people move to the Island, and Island rents and capital values are beginning to escalate. What happens? Most people who came all the way from the Mainland to enjoy the island effect, they see they cannot cope because the property that used to cost maybe N5 million some two three years ago goes for about N25 million or N30 million now. So, these people will run back to the Mainland and they will displace the original settlers there. The more there’s competition on a particular property, the more the price of that property. High rent or high cost of purchase, is a function of pressure on demand when supply is not responding at that rate. So people who are in Ikoyi will run to the Mainland, some will begin to push down towards Epe, Aja, and they will displace those people. But I think that the government can resolve this issue, but the question is: can you even discuss all this with the government? The answer is no, because even in advanced countries, government have played major role through their local councils. That’s where you have council flats. Local government do some of these things. Sure, but you know, in Nigeria here, we don’t have local government. Yes, they are there. We have 774 local governments all over the federation, but they are not functioning. They are just there on paper. The governors refuse to allow them to have autonomy. Governor goes to make sure that the local council’s money is paid into the state account, not into local government account. So they can’t even develop anything. Have we ever heard that one council developed so and so flats and they’re selling at a cheap rate to bring down the cost of rent? So they cannot do that. And the only way this issue will come down is where government, the state government encourages the councils to flood their areas with decent amenities and these flats, and make sure, in fact, that it can be done on social level, what I call social housing. Social housing is not meant to be for profit motive. That is where government comes in. It can be done with taxpayers’ money, or the government can also tax heavily some very big corporations, organisations, and divert that fund to funding social housing. Specifically for social housing, it must be deliberate, intentional, by the government. If they don’t do it, no single developer in this country wants to. Also, why are the churches not doing it. Government can even discuss with churches and say, “Okay, now listen: Since we don’t tax you, For those that have done the churches, you are going to do equivalent of the size of houses that is up to the size of the church you have, at least you can. If you have, say, Two million followers or members, you should be able to build at least 500,000, if not 1 million units of housing. Yes, the churches can do it. Look at Redeem. Redeem has but It’s expensive. Yes, it’s expensive. That’s the point I’m making. Yes, you know, they go to Covenant. They can do it, but it will be more expensive than even private homes. So these churches are capitalists. But the government should find a way to discuss with the churches. The churches should be able to pay tax because what they are earning is what I refer to as unearned income. They make a lot of money from people and they don’t account to anybody. You see what I mean? And they don’t even say let them pay back, let them come back to helping the people who lay the golden egg. They don’t care and they are not interested, you know. So in fact the churches most of them, sorry I have to say this, most of them are more capitalists than even the private developers. So, what are we talking about? Government cannot do everything. Government can also tax oil companies. You understand what I mean? Pool this fund and use it.

**How can the government improve transparency and accountability in land administration? **It’s too late. It’s like passing a Camel through the eye of a needle. It is too late. After all, was it not because of the hope and confidence that we reported, citizens reported to the government that the 1976 the Land Use Act was created by the Obasanjo administration? That Act says every single piece of land within the territory of any government is vested on the governor as the trustee of the people. Now, the question is, does the governor in anyway, try to make sure he gives that land to anybody, even when you apply? Are you not up to the age of building houses? Have you ever applied to your governor and got a land. So the governor cannot make that land available? They made it so scarce, so they said that an average person cannot, and then even if they try to release, they set up their cronnies. The cronnies get these allocations in fake names, and then they begin to sell. They begin to sell by the time it passes from primary, second primary, many other primary, up to secondary level, the price would have gone up. So that the duty of the government has been circumvented as relates to provision of land for those that actually need that land. So, they commercialise it, and they even deny their political opponents access to land.Even federal government to a very large extent. Okay, a case in point is the abandoned Federal Secretariat in Ikoyi, Lagos. Do you know the thousands of people that place will accommodate, if redeveloped? It’s a national asset and it is being wasted just because the Lagos State Government is having a grouse with the federal government on ownership, and even when the federal government appointed the Babalakin company to redesign, operator and handover, the Lagos State government refused. Up till today, that place is still abandoned. So the point I’m making is that we suffer a lot of waste in Nigeria, and there’s no hope for a common man, and that is why bribery, corruption, criminality will never, never be controlled in Nigeria. Also, if we have a responsible government that offers accommodation to government employees, or even make policy that if you must employ so so number of people, you must create housing for them. They would have removed that pressure of housing from the heads of families, and that will make any employee you give a house to be dedicated. He will be loyal to you. He’s not going to go anywhere. But how many establishments in Nigeria can provide staff housing? How many companies have staff housing scheme? No company. So how can the staff cope? So if that staff finds a way, he can enrich himself. Are you telling him not to do something? Your wife will be asking you, So you want to be holier than the Pope? Ah, okay. So if anything happens, she and the children will be thrown out by Shylock landlords that are merciless. So this is the problem. So, I think that the Nigerian government must be intentional about social housing, and the government has not done much. Even the so-called Renewed Hope Housing Scheme that the federal government has embarked on, yes, it is there, but no unit is less than N20 million or N30 million. Maybe from N40 million, N50 million and above with no mortgage. How can a common man get that money to own a house? So, I think that the best thing will be for the government to be intentional and make sure that they make arrangement so that people will build their homes, the Renewed Hope Housing is good. I say it’s the stepping stone because if other government had been doing this, maybe we would have gone very far. But yes, his intension is good, but is he addressing the problem? No. Now the government created different funding models like the EMREF. If you want to buy a house now, if you have N10 million, for instance, the government can give you the rest, make you to go to bank, access a loan of N100 million. You pay. But you must be able to have a regular income that will support that for 20 years. But the issue is, if you divide that amount by 20 years, how much will you get? That is about N5 million a year. A year. So how many people earn up to N5 million a year. How many people? Now the the best thing we can do is to embark on social housing, and it’s not by talking. The government must sit down with us professionals. We’ll tell them how they can source the fund. Let us even test it. Okay. Let us test it for one year. Out of any head of state staying 8 years in office, let’s try it religiously for one year in all the states of the federation, and let us see how we can go with that? For instance, I mentioned to you about the local government. For this thing to be possible, the local government must be functional, must be effective, must be able to take responsibility for creating local mass housing for the teeming population. Local government housing. Yes, we are talking about 774 local government. If all of them can embark on this, the pressure will reduce at the same time. Definitely. And if the pressure, if supply equals demand, price will drop. Sure. And then if supply is more than demand, it will drop further. But the other way around is where we are.

Let’s go to land documentation. That’s another problem for developers. Yes. How do you think we can manage that?

It again depends on the policies of the government, the state government. As I said before, most state governments are too political about anything concerning land. Now, if there are serious developers in Lagos, for instance, so how many of them can work to Alausa today and ask for lease of transfer of land registration. Either C of O or land registration. Not possible. Maybe they want to know where you come from. If you are from the tribe they don’t like, I won’t mention the tribe, they will tell you it’s not possible. So you see that most of those developers are suffocating. Even those of them who can try to navigate, they will pay a lot of premium. Then if you discover that you are paying too much up to the cost of developing, to, you know, get the documents for one paper. What happens? The problem you will have is that you don’t want to build again, because how long can you pass on this cost to the final consumer, to the buyer? So that’s why the capital value of acquiring a property is always increasing. And when somebody buys out of annoyance, he transfer the burden to the tenant. And then what will happen? You know, government has said, one year rent. One year rent is not working. If you said one year rent, and the landlord will say, okay, no problem, one year after one year, you can even increase rent again, or he comes and says there’s no house, what will you do?So now is for the government to ensure that all this policy, or part of the measures to checkmate escalating costs in rent and purchase of houses, is to flood the market with houses, alternative housing. You’re a developer now, and you suffer. You are the man that is even in the C of O industry, so you know that for somebody to come and meet you now, they want to perfect the C of O. You go through a lot of hurdles, pay a lot of money, both official and unofficial. By the time you check the point, you say, “Okay, I’m not perfect. Let me, you know. And if you do not perfect, you won’t be able to transfer. So, from whatever way you look at it, it is not an easy business. And those who try to venture to take the risk, they are seen as heartless, they want to pass on this burden to the final consumer. So that’s why people pay a lot now to get any house. Even in Ikoyi now, I heard that boys quarters is going up to N5 million. A common boys quarters is more than five million naira. How will they cope? And then population is growing. They can’t stop people from coming into Lagos. And then, If you ask me, I will still blame the government. The government should be able to allow different states and local areas to develop. When local areas develop, they have light, they have water, good amenities and facilities, communication, nobody will want to leave their village and come to Lagos. Yes, you know. But if you allow all these scarce facilities, you concentrate them in Lagos, People will always leave their villages to migrate here. From where I come, I can stay one month or two months till we see electricity. So we run generator. It’s true, or now solar. I’m from Imo State. Yet we are developed in that area. Now talk of other people that are not that developed. So government should be deliberate in developing the rural areas in order to mitigate forcefull migration of people to urban area, because that is what is forcing the migration. You know the high cost of rental. People will be crying. Now election campaign is here, everybody is jumping up and down, making empty promises. When they manage to get there, either by free or fair file base, they will deliver nothing. You understand what I mean?